Diversifying geochemistry – travel support for students from under-represented constituencies to attend the Goldschmidt Conference; 2020-2022

The Geosciences is among the least diverse of the STEM fields in terms of participation of people from underrepresented ethnic groups (defined by the US government as African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, Native Hawai’ians and Pacific Islanders, Native Alaskans). In addition, studies have shown that undergraduate students who are the first in their generation to attend college are much less likely than their multi-college generation cohorts to pursue research and advanced degrees. Because it is well-documented that having heterogeneous teams working on a problem brings greater innovation, it is important to expand participation in geoscience research and broaden diversity in the field. The V.M. Goldschmidt Conference is the premier international meeting for geochemistry. This annual Conference alternates between European venues (organized by the European Association of Geochemistry) and venues in North America, Asia, or Australia (organized by the Geochemical Society). In order to increase the diversity of geochemists, the funding from this project will support the participation of students from underrepresented groups to attend the Goldschmidt Conference so that they may learn about the most recent advances in the field, meet future mentors and employers, and present their own research. The NSF funding will be matched by funds from the Geochemical Society in order to support the following demographics: 1) students who are members of underrepresented ethnic groups, 2) students matriculating in colleges and universities that do not offer doctorate programs and where their advisors and unlikely to have grant funding to support the student’s conference attendance, 3) undergraduate students at any institution of higher education who are the first in their generation to attend college. Outcomes of the program will be tracked from year to year in order to determine any effects it may have had on achieving greater diversity within geochemistry. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.